Twinning

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Twinning - an institution of ritual kinship (along with nepotism, dairy kinship, etc.) and the ritual of the conclusion of twinning, known in the folk tradition of all Slavs, but the longest preserved in the Balkans (among the Eastern Slavs - among the Cossacks). It is perceived as a connection mediated (or granted) by the gods (compare the Serbian formulas for God brother / sister, God brother / sister) and therefore stronger, sacred in contrast to blood relationship, which is not divine, but "human" in nature.

In common law, it is equated to consanguinity and is protected by the same prohibitions (primarily the taboo on marriage) and the same punishments for violating them as consanguinity.

There are several types of twinning

The meaning of the first is to fill in the missing family ties, natural inferiority of the tribal or family structure, when, for example, a girl who has no brothers enters into Twinning with a guy who takes responsibility for the named sister and, accordingly, all the necessary ritual roles (for example, in a wedding ceremony).

Twinning can be for the sake of reconciling warring families or childbirth and preventing or stopping blood feud (for the same purpose, cumulation and marriage can be used).

Sometimes twinning turns into a calendar rite with a general, well-meaning semantics. So, in Banat, in many villages on Monday, St. Thomas' week, the ceremony of concluding twinning and post-streaming is performed: the participants go to the water (river or source), weave a wreath, soak it in the water and kiss through it; then they exchange gifts and eggs; then the wreath is thrown over the water or thrown onto the roof or fruit tree. (Compare Trinity boom of girls among Russians).

In Bulgaria, the calendar ceremony of twinning is performed most often on Midsummer's Day in winter (7.1), less often on the day of winter Athanasius. Guys who want to enter into fraternal relations go to church, the priest ties them with one belt and blesses them; they exchange bouquets of ivy or boxwood tied with a red woolen thread, to which an antique gold coin is attached. Later, on this day and on other major holidays, they visit each other, give each other clothes, stockings, etc. Marriage between their children is not permitted.

The most common way of concluding twinning among the South Slavs: cut the index fingers on the left hand with the same blade, then lick each other's blood and squeeze the cut fingers, after which they kiss and from that moment become brothers; accordingly, the rest of their family members acquire new roles in the system of kinship relations. More reduced rituals - drinking from one cup, dressing brothers in one large shirt, crawling through the split trunk of a rosehip, tying them with a chain, etc. After the Baptism of Russia, the exchange of crosses became widespread among Russians, hence the name of twinning: crusade.

The rite of twinning could be concluded between persons of the opposite sex to prevent unwanted marriage between them…. In the South Slavic songs, there is a motive: a boy and a girl who were married against their wishes, on their wedding night they enter into Twinning and thus avoid marital relations.

The Serbs distinguish between brotherhood "by blood" and "by bondage". In the second case, twinning acts as an apotrope, as a means that protects against illness, evil eye, death, any misfortune. Most often, twinning was resorted to in order to save twins, "one-month olds" or one-day people (sometimes namesakes) in a situation where the death of one of them threatens the life of the other. The connection of the rescued person with another person (brother-in-law) restored the broken bin and eliminated the danger. Among the Serbs in the vicinity of Sokobani, if there was a sick child or other family member in the house and no medical treatment was provided, they looked for a brother-in-law (or a sister-in-law) for the patient.

Twinning could not only be with people (including with foreigners and gentiles), but also with all sorts of natural and otherworldly creatures. According to some Serbian beliefs, a person, when meeting a wolf, can defend himself by symbolically fraternizing with him, saying: "Brothers, make way for me!" In the same way, you can swarm with a mouse, snake, fox in order to protect you from them. In conspiracies twinning is offered to vile; in her songs the girl calls the sun her brother; in spells, addressed to the hail cloud, there is often an appeal "sister to God." In folk medicine Eastern Slavs are also known for the motive of fraternization (as well as cumulation, matchmaking) as one of the methods of treatment. For example, in Polesie, to get rid of childhood insomnia, they carried the child to an oak tree and turned to him with the proposal: "Pobrataymos, posvataimos …"

In epic and songs Southern Slavs are widely represented by the motive of human brotherhood with mythical creatures (pitchforks, samovils, etc.), with trees (spruce, sycamore), with animals (especially often with snakes), with diseases. Most often, however, the topic of a ban on marriage relations between brothers (as obstacles to the happiness of heroes) is being developed, the topic of violation of the ban, the consequences of this grave sin and the punishment for it (there is no rain for three years, there is hail; the guilty are burned, and then the rain "returns" etc.). In Russian folklore the theme of twinning is especially characteristic of epics: epic heroes fraternize with a fighting adversary or rival in order to end the world in a duel in which both have shown valor and courage. "Krestovy brother" is a reliable protector and support of his brother; the commandments of the brotherhood are sacredly observed.

S. M. Tolstaya

Lit.:

Gromyko MM. The world of the Russian village. M., 1991. S. 130-142;

Tolstoy N. I. Magical rituals and beliefs associated with the South Slavic "one-month" and "one-day" // Small forms of folklore. M., 1995. S. 144-164.

Illustrations - Victor Korolkov